Director, Data Scientist

USAA•San Antonio, TX

3d•$189,370 - $361,950

About The Position

USAA is seeking a Director of Data Science to lead the development and scaling of enterprise AI capabilities, including generative AI, LLMs, and autonomous agent ecosystems. The role leads a team building reusable horizontal AI platforms and solutions to support enterprise-wide automation, innovation, and strategic differentiation. It combines AI strategy, technical architecture and delivery, organizational transformation, and leadership bridging research with business value. The Director serves as an enterprise AI thought leader and strategic advisor, influences executive investment and planning, and directs a team of AI and data scientists and engineers. The role guides solutions from ideation through production, develops reusable capabilities across business units, partners on AI infrastructure and deployment standards, and ensures compliance with AI safety, model risk, data governance, and regulatory requirements. It also develops talent and manages operational risks such as hallucinations, data leakage, security vulnerabilities, and agent drift.

Requirements

At least 8 years of progressive experience in machine learning, advanced data science, and AI development, with recent emphasis on deploying Generative AI, LLMs, or agentic systems to production; alternatively, an advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, or a quantitative STEM field and at least 6 years of relevant experience.
At least 3 years of direct people leadership experience building, managing, and inspiring technical teams.
Proven track record architecting and delivering scalable, high-performance horizontal AI platforms or reusable capabilities that drive cross-enterprise transformation.
Demonstrated ability to adapt technical strategies and teams in response to rapid changes in the AI ecosystem.
Deep technical background in modern AI frameworks and methodologies, such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, vector databases, fine-tuning, RAG architectures, prompt engineering patterns, and multi-agent orchestration.
Comprehensive understanding of AI governance, risk mitigation, guardrails, prompt injection defense, alignment, model risk policies, and compliance expectations for automated and autonomous systems.
Exceptional executive communication skills and a track record of presenting complex AI architectures, ROI metrics, and technical roadmaps to senior executives and non-technical stakeholders.
Must not require immigration support now or in the future; USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this role.

Responsibilities

Shape enterprise use of generative AI, LLMs, and agentic workflows as a thought leader and strategic advisor.
Influence business, data, and technology executives to invest in, scale, and future-proof horizontal AI capabilities; participate in strategy, planning, and budgeting.
Direct and empower AI and data scientists and engineers building scalable LLM applications, RAG pipelines, and autonomous agent systems.
Guide solutions from ideation to performant production, optimizing prompt engineering, context management, model evaluation, and inference cost-efficiency.
Champion modular, reusable horizontal AI capabilities and services for use across business units.
Partner with Enterprise Architecture and IT to establish AI infrastructure, tooling pipelines, and scalable cloud and on-premise deployment standards.
Ensure AI models, agentic workflows, and generative solutions adhere to AI safety guidelines, model risk management frameworks, data governance, and regulatory compliance.
Identify and secure strategic resources, including LLM API integrations, third-party tools, specialized hardware, and talent investments.
Build and scale an AI talent team through recruiting, technical mentorship, coaching, and performance management.
Identify, measure, monitor, and control AI operational risks, including hallucinations, data leakage, security vulnerabilities, and autonomous agent drift.